icns file or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named Your App Name.app that executes the your-shell-script.sh script.Īfter that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to. Fire up Terminal.app and enter sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appify to make appify executable without root privileges.Īfter that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this: $ appify your-shell-script.sh 'Your App Name'.I chose to put it in /usr/local/bin, which requires root privileges. Save the script to a directory in your PATH and name it appify (no extension).(I’m not, so I had to figure this out.) Here’s how to install it: Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you’re used to working with UNIX. The code looks like this: #!/usr/bin/env bashĮcho '$.app already exists :(' As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app! Enter appifyĪfter this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever “appify” script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it’s a shell script. Inside the MacOS directory, there’s an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a Contents folder with a MacOS subfolder in it. You can view the application’s contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing “Show Package Contents”.

app extension, but it’s not really a file - it’s a package.

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